Like an animal warfare episode of “Wild Kingdom” but with less character motivation, “The Day” cycles through bursts of horrific violence only to end much as it begins: static, hollow and vague. An unspecified event a decade earlier — Luke Passmore’s barely-there screenplay is no help here — has left all of society more or less like “The Hunger Games.”

There are survivors, a group of five, notionally led by Rick (the seemingly always lost Dominic Monaghan), that is being hunted, inefficiently, by zombies who live in the woods. Beyond that, there is no why, no where and hardly a how to the action here. Between long stretches of nothingness come scenes that are full of brutality but almost never tension — the deaths are video-game quick, and just as untheatrical, even in the battle royale that brings the action to a close.

Apart from an intense, borderline-feminist moment midway through when it seems as if Mary (Ashley Bell) and Shannon (Shannyn Sossamon) might wrest control of the group — or take on each other — the hunted behave bizarrely: sometimes blithe, sometimes crumbling, never convincing.

Directed lumpily by Douglas Aarniokoski, “The Day” looks radiant and parched, as if shot through a grisaille Instagram filter — it’s blandly pretty, as post-apocalypses go. The same applies to the survivors, who look as if they’d had greasepaint applied after a nice shower, rather than bearing years of physical and emotional grime.

Only Mary, all sinew and darting eyes, seems credibly ragged, maybe because of all of them, she’s the one with her own agenda, which is bloody, but may not be any more complicated than wanting to find a worthier crew to wander the scorched earth with.

“The Day” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It features bursts of violence, flickers of nudity and a total absence of common sense.